The case presenter of this invention is designed to permit a single operator to perform the functions required by the case packer device disclosed in the co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 583,640 filed by Raymond A. Labombarde and Robert A. Tremblay. As explained in that application, in the prior art it has been necessary and customary to provide several operators to handle the production of a high speed folder-gluer such as manufactured by The International Paper Box Machine Company of Nashua, N.H.
The folded and glued box blanks delivered by the apron of a stacker in shingled formation has required the operators to travel back and forth between open corrugated cases, each carrying such number of box or tray flats as can be grasped without dropping and manually inserting the lift into the case until a layer is formed, and until the packing case is full.
The above mentioned case packer device permits a single operator to grasp an entire counted slug of folded glued flats, slide the slug onto a compression table, compress the slug and slide it bodily into an open corrugated packing case, held in a case gripper, which automatically turns the case back onto its bottom, closes the bottom flaps and discharges the case to a box taper.
To accomplish such efficient handling by a single operator, it is clear that the operator could not have a plurality of open, erected corrugated cases cluttering up the work area. Also, that the operator does not have time, or space, to repeatedly move around to the opposite side of the stacker apron to erect, or open, or position, a corrugated case ready for filling and then move back again to the near side to fill the case.